Hi

Why is it that I can sit down and drink a whole case of beer every day for a week and feel just great ONE TIME and then pull the same stunt a week...two weeks...a month later and feel like I'm going to die (miserable hangover, dizzy, anxious, panicky, sick feeling, nausia, diarrhea, burning stomach, etc?).

Are there just certain "times" when your body can't handle the alcohol?. Is it a metabolism thing?. Does a person's body become alcohol intolerant so that they have to give it a break for awhile before drinking again to allow their body to recouperate?. Is it possable to go on four different drinking binges over a period of a month and feel just fine during and after three of them but have a "bad trip" on one of them?. Or perhaps I'm just getting "older" (I'm 43/male) and my body is not able to tolerate the alcohol like it could when I was a teenager.

Yesterday (2-3 days after the "gin fiasco" in which I had consumed an entire bottle of gin and got pretty sick), I sat down and drank only 7 beers. Prior to this, I had still been recovering/detoxing from the whole bottle of gin I'd consumed a few days before and was starting to feel some sense of normalacy again. Well anyway, after the seventh beer, I was'nt feeling too bad and I ate a nice dinner and then later that evening, I took my regular Atarax (Hydroxazine Hydrochloride). Atarax is used in the treatment of sleep disorders, anxiety and is technically an antihistamine. I take it to sleep through the night.

Anyway, I had a difficult time getting to sleep anyway, had a zillion different dreams (and I mean vivid, weird ones!) and I woke up this morning staggering around, sweating like crazy and felt like someone had given me a date rape drug...I mean I was OUT-OF-IT!. It took me half the day just to get my wits together and get anything done. I felt weak and mildly sick too and there was lots of anxiety, aches, pains, etc.

The funny (or actually NOT so funny) thing about this is that when I relapsed this last time around, I drank like a fish for the first week or so and felt great. Now, I drink and feel horrible. Nothing has changed (I drink the same beer/amount/brand, take the same meds, etc) so how the heck can you feel good drinking for several weeks one time and then the alcohol has a completely DIFFERENT effect on you the next?.

Am I missing something here?

- LT

Purely from a biological standpoint, your body is getting older and no, it cannot handle it as well. Alcohol kills cells, poisons the liver, reeks havoc on the digestive system, dehydrates, etc.

From a recovering alcoholic's standpoint...alcoholism is progressive. You used the word "relapsed" so I am assuming you have come to the acceptance of being alcoholic. I am damn sure I can go out and have a great time for a bit if I start drinking again...but eventually, probably sooner than later, negative consequences will happen. Physically and otherwise. I don't want to give anything I have away today. I know that after the first one I lose all control over what happens, so the only way to stay in control is to not bend my elbow the first time.

Take care of yourself, you're worth it...

Alcohol is poison. The healthier your body is the worse it's going to react. If you drink on a continious basis for a week your body is full of poison but once you get alot of that out and then drink days later your body is trying to fight it off of a healthier body. Your only messing up your body's normal function. Alcohol is poison, that's why you get drunk because your body is trying to fight it off. I hope this made sense to you. I agree serenity. Alcohol sneaks up on you and denial becomes your best friend.

There is so much great advice here and many questions have been very well answered but I have some bad news...I just drank a beer and will probably drink 2,3 or even 4 more. If I do this every other day or even every couple of days, will this make me what is known as a "drunk" or affect my health in the long run?. I mean, lots of people all over the world chug down a few beers every now and then (on the weekends, after a hard day's work, at sports events, etc) and they are'nt all "alcoholics" and so forth. Even my 87 year old granny has been known to chug down a few cold ones here and there and drinking in moderation is even supposed to be good for you according to numerous studies done over many years (probably funded by the booze companies though...lol).

Anyway, I want to be able to drink in moderation as people have been doing all through the ages but what I don't want to do is chug down a fifth of gin or a whole case of beer every day, etc. So if I drink just 3-4 beers this evening am I "safe"?. I've been busting my butt Christmas shopping, decorating, wrapping gifts, doing laundry, feeding and cleaning up after our animals here (we have a farm) and just doing a bunch of other things around here and I think it would be ok to just sort of "wind" down with a few "frosties". Am I wrong for thinking this way?. If I am, please tell me. I can take critisicm pretty well.

- Thank's again for the fellowship and freindship here...

Only you can decide if you're an alcoholic or not. My definition was that I couldn't control how many I would have after I started and my life was unmanageable...and getting moreso as the years wore on. I almost never had "just one." And I definitely could not just "maintain that buzz"...I passed that and went way beyond...

I read somewhere that people without drinking problems don't worry or wonder if they have drinking problems, so called "normal" drinkers. I found that kind of humorously accurate...

I guess the answer to your question lies with you...

So if I drink just 3-4 beers this evening am I "safe"?. I've been busting my butt Christmas shopping, decorating, wrapping gifts, doing laundry, feeding and cleaning up after our animals here (we have a farm) and just doing a bunch of other things around here and I think it would be ok to just sort of "wind" down with a few "frosties". Am I wrong for thinking this way?. If I am, please tell me. I can take critisicm pretty well.

- Thank's again for the fellowship and freindship here...


I would hardly think that drinking 3-4 beers a night would consitute a problem.....however what you need to ask yourself is will you be able to stop at 3-4 Beers. Coming from someone who used to have a bit of a problem with Booze; I can tell you that the 3-4 beers a night thing might work for a couple of weeks...but you soon might find yourself slowly increasing the amount, and suddenly your back to where you started from.

You should try it and see if you can stay with it...but it sounds like you've tried moderation before and it hasn't worked for you. If this is the case then you may need to pursue other options....

I read somewhere that people without drinking problems don't worry or wonder if they have drinking problems, so called "normal" drinkers. I found that kind of humorously accurate...

...


Very true quote....however at the same time, there is a tendency in our society to sort of claim that "everybody who drinks has a problem with alcohol". I've witnessed this attitude in several places....usually from the same lot who thinks Harry Potter is sinful ;)

But I do agree with your quote.

I think you should check your statistics better. On your first post you were saying how you felt like crap. If your trying to figure out a way to drink as many beers as you want and not become an alcoholic then you might be heading in the wrong direction. Drinking 3 or 4 beers isn't healthy at all. Good luck to you.

You know the saying about a menu at a resturaunt - if it
doesn't have prices listed, and you have to ask how much
- you can't afford it!

If you try on a dress, and have to ask someone if it looks OK -
it probably doesn't.

If you have to ask if you have a drinking problem, well..you
write the ending!

Take care, we are all behind you whatever "ending" you
write. Merry Christmas!! Lizzie

bad trips happen when the craving phenomenon happens after six-twelve-nineteen beers. i drink to get a buzz,relax, this takes not only one beer but after i have one i like to have another and four or five usaually is the cut off, because if the bar tender sees i drink more than that then i obviously am not normal. some say i am drinking to medicate scitzophrenia. personally i dont call it Schitzo i call it social phobia. I feel secure and whole with one drink or more.

As with all things, some people can drink alcohol and some people can't...I am an admitted addict...my drug of choice is vicodin. I have an RX for Xanax that I can take whenever...and I never do...therefore, I have no issue. If I had vicodin, I would take them and obsess about them constantly...how many do I have left, when can I get them refilled, I promise myself I'll take only one a day, lie...lie...lie. That's my definition of addiction...the obsession. I can totally drink a beer or two after a round of golf and be fine...stop at that and not think twice. However, you may want to really ask yourself some hard questions re: your drinking. A whole bottle of gin? That's like me and my whole bottle of vicodin. Be careful. It's a slippery slope for sure.

As one who doesn’t fit into the “classic alcoholic” mould very well myself, I do sympathise with you. You sound very similar to me, and seem to suffer from the same delusion – that because you can drink OK sometimes, there isn’t a problem. Although I agree with others who have posted here who say nobody but you has the right to tell you you’re an alcoholic, to me it appears that you definitely have a drinking problem – who cares what we call it?

Believe me, no drinking problem ever improves – it will get worse and worse. Possibly very slowly, as in my case, but progressive nonetheless. I’ll give you the same advise people in AA give me – it will gradually destroy more and more of your quality of life; your emotions, your body, your mind; it WILL get worse; and the only sane thing to do is recognise this, and stop. Easier said than done!

Regarding the fact that you can do the same thing on two different nights and get different result, join the club! I started keeping a drinking diary back in 1994, in which I analysed everything about the evening's drinking – what I had to eat, EVERYTHING – and I still haven’t found out why this is.


BTW, as I’m Irish and not American, can somebody please tell me what the letters RX stand for, and what a “fifth” is!

Thanks

RX means prescription.
A fifth is a standard size of liquor bottles.